Franky Perez back home again

Las Vegas native Franky Perez left home to pursue his music career when he was a teenager.

But earlier this year, he realized, you can go home again, after landing a local gig at the Lounge in the Palms. From 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays, Perez plays his original music and covers classic rock 'n' roll, including Led Zepplin, Bob Marley, the Beatles, Joe Cocker and more.

He plays two hours straight, like a concert, so the gig is high energy.

"I don't like to lose momentum," he says.

Even though he's lived in Los Angeles for several years, Perez says he knew it was only a matter of time before he returned home, at least for a while. Las Vegas made a major impact on him as a musical artist, he says.

When he wasn't playing bars, he and his friends would rent a generator and haul it out to the middle of the desert, where they threw live gigs. Where he played, up in the Southwest, is now a housing track, he says.

Those gigs shaped him as a performer as he had to learn to entertain dozens of kids who drove out to the middle of nowhere to hear him.

"That really nurtured me as an entertainer because you're in the middle of the desert and you don't want to let these people who drove out to see you down," Perez says.

He promises locals that he still won't let them down.

"Come on out, you'll be entertained," Perez says.